§ Mr. Hardyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimate of the annual cost to British industry of
714Wfor Diss and for the Thetford travel-to-work area, which comprises the Thetford, Swaffham and Brandon employment office areas.
and Woodbridge employment office areas in May 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978, respectively.
§ Mr. GoldingThe available figures for the Ipswich, Sudbury and Woodbridge employment office areas are given in the table below. Estimates of the total numbers of employees in employment in local areas relate to June each year. The latest figures available are those for 1976. Comparable figures for 1974, however, are not available due to difficulties which arose following the reorganisation of local government in England and Wales.
years requested are given in the table below:
absences, accidents and errors due to the excessive consumption of alcohol.
§ Mr. John GrantThere is no precise information available. The financial cost to industry is difficult to assess, primarily 715W because of the problem of correlating absenteeism, accidents and errors with the incidence of excessive alcoholic consumption. However, I have noted that estimates have been made varying from £100 million to £350 million a year.